Light emitting devices, such as light emitting diodes or devices (LEDs), are widely used for providing cost effective illumination in commercial and residential locations. Currently, two approaches for managing and controlling light output from LED fixtures are commonly utilized in the current marketplace. The first approach involves producing the most efficient LED light fixture and allowing the fixture to lose lumens over a period of time. Such LED light fixtures are typically designed with 10-15% more lumens than are actually needed to illuminate a given space, thereby allowing the LED light fixture to provide the “rated” illumination level at the midpoint of the fixture's designed lifespan. Thus, an LED light fixture designed in this manner provides excess illumination for the first half of its lifespan and depreciated lighting levels (i.e., receding from the rated lighting level) for the second half of its lifespan.
The second approach for managing and controlling LED light fixture output involves the utilization of a circuit that is designed to increase power to the LED light fixture over time in order to maintain the light output at an initial rated light level. While obviating the need to design for an average/mean lumen output because the light level does not change during the useful life of the fixture, this approach may be less desirable from a code compliance perspective since the wattage for the fixture must be defined by its “ending” power and not its initial power. Moreover, LED light fixtures of this type may also include a circuit that is designed to flash or provide some other visible “end of life” indication when the fixture is unable to maintain the initial light level or when the lumen level has dropped below a predetermined threshold. While such a visual indication can be useful for alerting facility maintenance personnel to replace the fixture, there are many other applications that may use depreciated LED light fixtures that do not include a built-in visual alert. Namely, LED light fixtures that include the aforementioned visual indication mechanisms are effectively rendered useless for applications that are able utilize fixtures with depreciating lighting.
Thus, despite various approaches to utilize LED light fixtures in an efficient manner, a need remains for further operating solutions that provide cost effective illumination using LED light fixtures.